White Supremacy Culture

White supremacy culture is the idea (ideology) that white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of white people are superior to People of Color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions. White supremacy expresses itself interpersonally as well as structurally (through our governments, education systems, food systems, etc).

Characteristics of White Dominant Culture by Tema Okun

  1. Perfectionism

  2. Sense of Urgency

  3. Defensiveness

  4. Quantity over quality

  5. Worship of the written word

  6. Either/ or thinking

  7. Power hoarding

  8. Fear of open conflict

  9. Individualism

  10. Progress is bigger, more

  11. Objectivity

  12. Right to Comfort

This ideology can show up in some of the following ways in fiscal sponsorship work:

  •  Promoting organizational stability without a social justice lens

    • i.e. uplifting operational infrastructure that mimics larger white-led organizations and honors the ability to navigate inherently unjust systems

  • Operating within hyper-capitalism frameworks

    • i.e. qualifying success as organizational growth and ability to retain additional funding instead of deepened relationships and ability to sustain existing funding

  • Making policies because “that’s how it’s always been done”

    • i.e. copy-pasting policies without pausing to investigate if they are necessary, legally required, and/or culturally competent and regarding everything that falls outside of those policies as an “exception”

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